Cham language

Not to be confused with Cham language (Nigeria) or Cham Albanian dialect.

For the varieties of Malay spoken by the Cham people, see Mekong Delta Malay.

Cham
bạhsa Cam ꨌꩌ چم
'Cham' in Cham script
Pronunciation	[cam]
Native to	Cambodia and Vietnam
Region	Mainland Southeast Asia
Ethnicity	Cham
Native speakers	490,000 (2019)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Chamic Coastal Cham
Early forms	Proto-Chamic Old Cham
Dialects	Western Cham Eastern Cham
Writing system	Cham, Jawi (Arabic), Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Vietnam Cambodia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: cja – Western Cham cjm – Eastern Cham
Glottolog	cham1328
ELP	Eastern Cham

Cham (bạhsa Cam; Cham: ꨌꩌ, Jawi: چم, Latin script: Cam) is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in the territory of the former Kingdom of Champa, which spanned modern Southern Vietnam, as well as in Cambodia by a significant population which descends from refugees that fled during the decline and fall of Champa. The Western variety is spoken by 220,000 people in Cambodia and 25,000 people in Vietnam. As for the Eastern variety, there are about 73,000 speakers in Vietnam, for a total of approximately 490,000 speakers.

Cham belongs to the Chamic languages, which are spoken in parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Indonesia's Aceh Province, and on the island of Hainan. Cham is the oldest-attested Austronesian language, with the Đông Yên Châu inscription being verifiably dated to the late 4th century AD. It has several dialects, with Eastern Cham (Phan Rang Cham; ꨌꩌ ꨚꨰ, Cam pai) and Western Cham (ꨌꩌ ꨚꨭꩉ, Cam pur) being the main ones. The Cham script, derived from the ancient Indic script, is still used for ceremonial and religious purposes. Cham language is also used together with the Malay variety, Mekong Delta Malay, especially by the Western Cham people who are mostly Sunni Muslims and are oriented towards Malaysia, especially Kedah and Kelantan.

History

Ancient roots

Further information: Old Cham

The Cham people are believed to be descendants of the Champa Kingdom, which was a powerful and influential kingdom that flourished in what is now central and southern Vietnam from around the 2nd to the 17th century. The Champa Kingdom had a distinctive culture and language that set the Cham people apart from their neighbors. Old Cham is an Austronesian language and has the oldest written evidence of the family, namely the Đông Yên Châu inscription created around 350 AD.

Champa Kingdom

The Champa Kingdom played a significant role in regional trade and cultural exchange, interacting with neighboring civilizations such as the Khmer Empire, the Dai Viet (Vietnamese), and others. The Cham people developed their own script, known as Cham script, which was used for inscriptions and religious texts.

Decline of Champa

The decline of the Champa Kingdom began in the 15th century, and by the 17th century, it had been absorbed by the expanding Vietnamese state. This period marked significant cultural and linguistic changes for the Cham people as they came under the influence of the dominant Vietnamese culture.

Cham diaspora

As a result of historical events, including wars and the annexation of Champa by Vietnam, the Cham people faced displacement. Some migrated to Cambodia, where they established communities, while others remained in Vietnam. The Cham language underwent changes and adaptations as the Cham people interacted with the cultures of their new environments. Cham language is also still spoken by a small community of Laotian Chams with Laotian influences.

Modern challenges

In the contemporary era, the Cham language faces challenges such as assimilation, linguistic shifts, and the influence of dominant languages in the regions where Cham communities reside. Efforts are being made to preserve and revitalize the Cham language, including cultural programs, educational initiatives, and documentation of the language.

The persecution of the Cham people in Cambodia by Pol Pot in the 1970s also had a negative impact on the development of the Cham language. They became afraid to show their identity, even through their language, after their language and community almost went extinct.

Phonology

The Cham language dialects each have 21 consonants and 9 vowels.

Consonants

Cham consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	unaspirated	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	cʰ	kʰ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Liquid			l
Fricative			s		ɣ	h
Rhotic			r
Approximant				j	w

Vowels

Monophthongs

Cham vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid-high	e	ə	o
Mid-low	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a

Diphthongs

/ia/, /iɯ/ (occurs only before /-ʔ/), /ea/, /ua/, /oa/, /au/ (occurs only before /-ʔ/), /iə/, /ɛə/, /ɔə/, /uə/.

Dialects

Cham languages are generally classified into two, Western Cham and Eastern Cham. These languages eventually separated from each other to the point where level mutual understanding was quite low. Because of this diversity, the Cham language is currently divided into several dialects.

Eastern Cham

Eastern Cham
Phan Rang Cham
Native to	Vietnam
Region	South Central Coast
Ethnicity	Eastern Cham
Native speakers	73,000 (2019)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Chamic Coastal Cham Eastern Cham
Writing system	Cham, Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Vietnam
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cjm
Glottolog	east2563
ELP	Eastern Cham

Eastern Cham (Phan Rang Cham) is mainly spoken on the south central coast of Vietnam, in the provinces of Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận significantly, also in the provinces of Đồng Nai, Bình Định, Khánh Hòa, Phú Yên, Quảng Ngãi, to the northernmost traditional distribution in Quảng Nam.

Western Cham

Western Cham
Native to	Cambodia Vietnam
Region	Mekong Delta (Vietnam) and Southern Cambodia
Ethnicity	Western Cham
Native speakers	220,000 in Cambodia 25,000 in Vietnam ±245,000 (2019)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Chamic Coastal Cham Western Cham
Dialects	Châu Đốc–Tây Ninh–Xuân Lộc Kampong Chhnang Kampong Thom Phnom Penh (O Rusey)
Writing system	Cham, Jawi (Arabic), Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Cambodia Vietnam (with Eastern Cham)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cja
Glottolog	west2650
ELP	Eastern Cham

Western Cham is primarily spoken in Cambodia, especially near Phnom Penh, around the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. Then also in the southern part of Vietnam, especially in An Giang. Here are some of the dialects.

• Châu Đốc–Tây Ninh–Xuân Lộc
• Kampong Chhnang
• Kampong Thom
• Phnom Penh (O Rusey)

Grammar

Word formation

There are several prefixes and infixes which can be used for word derivation.

• prefix pa-: causative, sometimes giving more force to the word
  • thau (to know) → pathau (to inform)
  • blei (to buy) → pablei (to sell)
  • biér (low) → pabiér (to lower)
  • yao (like, as) → payao (to compare)
  • jâ (finished) → pajâ (well finished)
• prefix mâ-: sometimes causative, often indicates a state, possession, mutuality, reciprocity
  • jru (poison) → mâjru (to poison)
  • gru (teacher) → mâgru (to study)
  • tian (belly) → mâtian (pregnancy)
  • boh (egg, fruit) → mâboh (lay an egg, give fruit)
  • daké (horn) → mâdaké (having horns)
• prefix ta- or da-: frequentative
  • galung (to roll) → tagalung (to roll around)
  • dep (to hide oneself) → dadep (to be wont to hide oneself)
• infix -an-: noun formation
  • puec (to speak) → panuec (speech)
  • tiw (row) → taniw (oar)
  • dok (to live) → danok (house, living place)
• infix -mâ-: no specific meaning
  • payao (to compare) → pamâyao (to compare)

Reduplication is often used:

• palei, pala-palei (country)
• rambah, rambah-rambâp (misery)

Syntax and word order

Cham generally uses SVO word order, without any case marking to distinguish subject from object:

Dahlak

I

atong

beat

nyu.

he

Dahlak atong nyu.

I beat he

"I beat him."

Nyu

he

atong

beat

dahlak.

I

Nyu atong dahlak.

he beat I

"He beats me."

Dummy pronominal subjects are sometimes used, echoing the subject:

Inâ hudiap dahlak

my wife's mother

nyu

she

atong

beat

adei puthang nyu.

her husband's younger sister

{Inâ hudiap dahlak} nyu atong {adei puthang nyu.}

{my wife's mother} she beat {her husband's younger sister}

"My wife's mother beats her husband's younger sister."

Composite verbs will behave as one inseparable verb, having the object come after it:

Bloh

then

nyu

she

ndih di apvei

lie at fire (i.e.: give birth)

anek lakei.

son

Bloh nyu {ndih di apvei} {anek lakei.}

then she {lie at fire (i.e.: give birth)} son

"Then she gave birth to a son."

Sometimes, however, the verb is placed in front of the subject:

Lék

fall

dahlak.

I

Lék dahlak.

fall I

"I fall."

Auxiliary verbs are placed after any objects:

Nyu

he

ba

bring

hudiap nyu

his wife

nao.

go

Nyu ba {hudiap nyu} nao.

he bring {his wife} go

"He brings his wife."

If a sentence contains more than one main verb, one of the two will have an adverbial meaning:

Nyu

he

dep

hide

klaḥ

evade

mâtai.

death

Nyu dep klaḥ mâtai.

he hide evade death

"He evaded death by hiding."

Adjectives come after the nouns they modify:

thang

house

praong

big

thang praong

house big

"a big house"

If the order is reversed, the whole will behave like a compound:

urang

person

praong

big

sap

noise

urang praong sap

person big noise

"a noisy person"

Composite sentences can be formed with the particle krung:

tha drei athau tha drei mâyau

the dog and the cat

krung

which

ai nyu brei ka nyu

his brother gave him

{tha drei athau tha drei mâyau} krung {ai nyu brei ka nyu}

{the dog and the cat} which {his brother gave him}

"the dog and the cat his brother gave him"

nao tapak

to go straight

danao

lake

krung

which

ai that ikan

brother is fishing

{nao tapak} danao krung {ai that ikan}

{to go straight} lake which {brother is fishing}

"to go straight to the lake where his brother was fishing"

It is also possible to leave out this particle, without change in meaning:

Dahlak brei athéh nan

I give this horse

ka wa dahlak

to my uncle

∅

who

dok dii palei Ram.

live in the village of Ram

{Dahlak brei athéh nan} {ka wa dahlak} ∅ {dok dii palei Ram.}

{I give this horse} {to my uncle} who {live in the village of Ram}

"I have given this horse to my uncle, who lives in the village of Ram."

Questions are formed with the sentence-final particle rẽi:

Anek

child

thau

know

wakhar

writing

rei?

Q

Anek thau wakhar rei?

child know writing Q

"Can you write, child?"

Other question words are in situ:

Hau

you

nao

go

hatao?

where

Hau nao hatao?

you go where

"Where are you going?"

Nominals

Like many languages in Eastern Asia, Cham uses numeral classifiers to express amounts. The classifier will always come after the numeral, with the noun coming invariably before or after the classifier-numeral pair.

limâ

five

boḥ

CLF

châk

mountain

limâ boḥ châk

five CLF mountain

"five mountains"

palei

village

naṃ

six

boḥ

CLF

palei naṃ boḥ

village six CLF

"six villages"

The above examples show the classifier boḥ, which literally means "egg" and is the most frequently used — particularly for round and voluminous objects. Other classifiers are ôrang (person) for people and deities, ḅêk for long objects, blaḥ (leaf) for flat objects, and many others.

The days of the month are counted with a similar system, with two classifiers: one (bangun) used to count days before the full moon, and the other one (ranaṃ) for days after the full moon.

harei

day

tha

one

bangun

CLF

harei tha bangun

day one CLF

"first day after new moon"

harei

day

dua

two

klaṃ

CLF

harei dua klaṃ

day two CLF

"second day after full moon"

Personal pronouns behave like ordinary nouns and do not show any case distinctions. There are different forms depending on the level of politeness. The first person singular, for example, is kău in formal or distant context, while it is dahlak (in Vietnam) or hulun (in Cambodia) in an ordinarily polite context. As is the case with many other languages of the region, kinship terms are often used as personal pronouns.

Comparative and superlative are expressed with the locative preposition di/dii:

tapa

big

di

at

ai nyu

his brother

tapa di {ai nyu}

big at {his brother}

"bigger than his brother"

Verbs

There are some particles that can be used to indicate tense/aspect. The future is indicated with si or thi in Vietnam, with hi or si in Cambodia. The perfect is expressed with jâ. The first one comes in front of the verb:

Arak ni

now

kau

I

si

FUT

nao.

go

{Arak ni} kau si nao.

now I FUT go

"I will go now."

The second one is sentence-final:

Sit tra

little more

kau

I

nao

go

jâ.

PRF

{Sit tra} kau nao jâ.

{little more} I go PRF

"I'll be gone in a moment."

Certain verbs can function as auxiliaries to express other tenses or aspects. The verb dok ("to stay") is used for the continuous, wâk ("to return") for the repetitive aspect, and kieng ("to want") for the future tense.

The negation is formed with oh/o at either or both sides of the verb, or with di/dii in front.

The imperative is formed with the sentence-final particle bék, and the negative imperative with the preverbal juai/juei (in Vietnam and Cambodia respectively).

Sociolinguistics

Diglossia

Brunelle observed two phenomena of language use among speakers of Eastern Cham: They are both diglossic and bilingual (in Cham and Vietnamese). Diglossia is the situation where two varieties of a language are used in a single language community, and oftentimes one is used on formal occasions (labelled H) and the other is more colloquial (labelled L).

Dialectal differences

Cham is divided into two primary dialects.

• Western Cham: It is spoken by the Chams in Cambodia as well as in the adjacent Vietnamese provinces of An Giang and Tây Ninh. Also used by the Laotian Chams in Vientiane and to a lesser extent in Champasak, Laos.
• Eastern Cham: It is spoken by the coastal Cham population in the Vietnamese provinces of Bình Thuận, Ninh Thuận, and Đồng Nai.

The two regions where Cham is spoken are separated both geographically and culturally. The more numerous Western Cham are predominantly Muslims (although some in Cambodia now practice Theravāda Buddhism), while the Eastern Cham practice both Hinduism and Islam. Ethnologue states that the Eastern and Western dialects are no longer mutually intelligible. The table below gives some examples of words where the two dialects differed as of the 19th century.

	Cambodia	Southern Vietnam
vowels
child	anœk	anẽk
take	tuk	tôk
not	jvẽi	jvai
sibilants
one	sa	tha
save from drowning	srong	throng
salt	sara	shara
equal	samu	hamu
final consonants
heavy	trap	trak
in front	anap	anak
lexical differences
market	pasa	darak
hate	amoḥ	limuk

Lê et al. (2014:175) lists a few Cham subgroups.

• Chăm Poông: in Thạnh Hiếu village, Phan Hiệp commune, Bắc Bình District, Bình Thuận Province. The Chăm Poông practice burial instead of cremation as the surrounding Cham do.
• Chăm Hroi (population 4,000): in Phước Vân District (Bình Định Province), Đồng Xuân District (Phú Yên Province), and Tây Sơn District (Bình Định Province)
• Chàvà Ku, a mixed Malay-Khmer people in Châu Đốc

Writing systems

Cham script is a Brahmic script. The script has two varieties: Akhar Thrah (Eastern Cham) and Akhar Srak (Western Cham). The Western Cham language is written with the Arabic script or the aforementioned Akhar Srak.

Example text

ꨕꨨꨵꩀ ꨧꨮ ꨍꨯꩆ ꨇꩈ ꨟꨮꨭ ꨕꨮꩃ ꨆꩇ ꨨꩆ ꨨꩈ ꨕꩃ ꨕꨭ ꨟꨁꨁ ꨍꨭꨢꨮꩆ ꨚꩈ ꨔꩃ ꨣꩇ ꨆꨨꨁꨃꨂ ꨝꩆ ꨔꩆ ꨇꨯꩂ ꨍꨮꨭ ꨓꨮ ꨨꩃ ꨍꨮꨭ ꨆꨯ ꨟꨶꩆ ꨕꩈ ꨌꩌ

Dictionaries

The Ming dynasty Chinese Bureau of Translators produced a Chinese-Cham dictionary.

John Crawfurd's 1822 work "Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China" contains a wordlist of the Cham language.

See also

• Old Cham
• Cham script
• Cham people
• Cham calendar
• Champa kingdom

Further reading

• Grant, Anthony (Ed.); Sidwell, Paul (Ed.) (2005). Grant, Anthony; Sidwell, Paul (eds.). Chamic and Beyond: Studies in Mainland Austronesian Languages. Pacific Linguistics. Vol. 569. Canberra: Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-569. hdl:1885/146271. ISBN 0-85883-561-4. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
• Thurgood, Graham (1999). From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change: With an Appendix of Chamic Rreconstructions and Loanwords. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 28. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-2131-9.
• Aymonier, Étienne; Cabaton, Antoine (1906). Dictionnaire čam-français. Volume 7 of Publications de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. Paris: E. Leroux.
• Aymonier, Etienne (1889). Grammaire de la langue chame. Saigon: Imprimerie coloniale.
• Blood, D. L., & Blood, D. (1977). East Cham language. Vietnam data microfiche series, no. VD 51-72. Huntington Beach, Calif: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Blood, D. L. (1977). A romanization of the Cham language in relation to the Cham script. Vietnam data microfiche series, no. VD51-17. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Edwards, E. D.; Blagden, C. O. (1939). "A Chinese Vocabulary of Cham Words and Phrases". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 10 (1): 53–91. JSTOR 607926.
• Braginsky, Vladimir (2014). Classical Civilizations of South-East Asia. Routledge. pp. 398–. ISBN 978-1-136-84879-7.
• Moussay, Gerard (1971). Dictionnaire Cam-Vietnamien-Français (in French). Phan Rang: Centre Culturel Cam. (available online at nguoicham.com)
• Sakaya (2014). Từ điển Chăm (in Vietnamese). Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Tri Thức. ISBN 978-604-908-999-2.
• Various (2011). Ngôn ngữ Chăm: thực trạng và giải pháp (in Vietnamese). Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Phụ Nữ.
• Abdul Majid Hj. Yunos (2010). Kamus Cam–Melayu Jawi Rumi (in Malay).

External links

• Kaipuleohone has an archive including written materials of Cham